Memorial services are planned this weekend for Loni Ding, an award-winning filmmaker, educator and activist who documented the Asian American experience while fighting for broader community access to television programming.

She grew up in San Francisco's Chinatown, where her parents ran an herb shop. She studied sociology at UC Berkeley, and later taught media production in the university's ethnic studies department. Her career spanned three decades, during which she turned out more than 250 programs for broadcast.

"She was a mentor to so many young people," said her husband, David Welsh of Berkeley. "A lot of people started their filmmaking careers because of her class.

"And there were romances that got started in the class," he said. "Others went on to use film as part of progressive social movements. She affected people in so many different ways."

For Ms. Ding, there was no distinction between filmmaking and community organizing.

Barbara Abrash, a teacher at New York University and a collaborator with Ms. Ding, wrote in a memorial Web posting that the struggle of "ordinary people" to achieve social justice was "the passion of her life and subject of her films ... which she saw as tools for education, legislative change, community mobilizing, and public understanding."

Ms. Ding produced, wrote and directed "Ancestors in the Americas" in 1996. The PBS documentary explored the experiences of Asians in the New World from the 15th to 19th centuries. It was followed two years later with a second part, "Chinese in the Frontier West."

Her productions won several Emmys and have been shown at the London and Berlin film festivals. Among her numerous awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship and a director's fellowship at the American Film Institute.

She was a creator of Independent Television Service, which funds and distributes documentaries and dramas for public television, and helped found KQED's Open Studio.

In 1984 and 1987, Ms. Ding testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee in an effort to increase funding for independent and minority productions in public broadcasting.

Two of her documentaries, "Nisei Soldiers" and "The Color of Honor," examined issues faced by Japanese American soldiers during World War II. The films were submitted to members of Congress in 1987 and 1988 during hearings on Japanese American reparations.

Ms. Ding is survived by her husband; her children, May Ying Welsh of Doha, Qatar, and Elias Welsh of Oakland; and two sisters, Pearl Ding Dobson of San Francisco and Gracina Fong of Salinas.

A visitation will take place at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Green Street Mortuary, 649 Green St., San Francisco. A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, followed by a procession led by a brass marching band.